Recipes for Business, Personal, and Culinary Success
Restrictive covenants are a valuable tool for protecting a company’s intangible assets. But they are often misused through careless and imprecise drafting. My article in this month’s edition of the Arizona Attorney outlines critical steps you need to remember when drafting an enforceable restrictive covenant.
Drafting Enforceable Restrictive Covenants
#LegalChow #FairCompetition #RestrictiveCovenants
Salsas are an integral part of Southwestern cuisine. Tomatoes, tomatillos, dried cherries, and more make an excellent foundation for a tasty salsa. Salsas bring heat and flavor to any dish.
This smoked salsa is easy to make. It’s great as a dip with tortilla chips, and even better as a garnish to your taco or huevos rancheros. Give it a try.
Smoked Salsa
4 Roma tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
1 white onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1/2 cup cilantro
1 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
2 tsp. lime juice
Set your smoker at 250*. If you don’t have a smoker, you can roast the vegetables in your oven, but the salsa will not have a smoky flavor.
Quarter the tomatoes and cut the onion into large chunks. Remove the stem from the jalapeno pepper. Cut the pepper in half lengthwise. Leave the seeds in the pepper if you want spicier salsa; remove them if you want a milder sauce.
Place the tomatoes, garlic, onion, and jalapeno on a grilling mat. Smoke the vegetables for 60 to 90 minutes.
Peel the skin from the quartered tomatoes. Place the smoked vegetables and the cilantro in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the salt and lime juice, and pulse to blend. Add more salt and lime juice to taste, if needed.
Makes about 2 cups.
Click to download a .pdf copy of the recipe: Smoked Salsa
Fair competition is the foundation of the American Dream, the catalyst that fuels the yearning to build a better mousetrap. Fair competition incites entrepreneurs to leave the security of a regular paycheck and follow their passion to build something great. Fair competition allows the US economy to flourish.
Fair competition requires that we protect intangible assets — the ideas, innovations, and relationships that bring value to a business. By definition, these invaluable assets cannot be seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted. But their importance cannot be underestimated in the pursuit of fair competition.
Noncompete agreements and other restrictive covenants are critical tools in the quest for fair competition. When used properly, restrictive covenants prevent departing employees from engaging in unfair competition and foster fair competition. But of all stripes politicians across the country — including President Biden — seek to outlaw or restrain these important protectors of fair competition.
I’m pleased to join with 72 of the nation’s foremost attorneys and paralegals in expressing our concern about the attempts to abolish restrictive covenants. These practitioners represent all types of clients ranging from Fortune 50 companies to “mom and pop” shops to individual employees in the area of fair competition. Their opinions come from real world experience.
I invite you to read our joint letter to the FTC: Joint Submission of Trade Secret Lawyers. From time to time, I’ll be citing excerpts from that letter.
Every year just after Thanksgiving, I start baking cookies by the dozens for our Christmas gift to friends and neighbors. Orange Cranberry Shortbread, Pistachio and Cherry Mexican Wedding Cakes, Chocolate Crinkles, Gingersnaps, and more.
When we finish baking and decorating the cookies, we box them up, then enlist our adult children to help us deliver the cookies throughout the neighborhood.
Traditionally, the baking starts with Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (pictured above). My youngest daughter says that she knows the Christmas season is here when she can smell them baking. I’m glad to accommodate.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer on high speed until the mixture is light. Add the egg, vanilla, peppermint, and salt. Beat until light and fluffy.
Add the cocoa and mix on low speed until combined. Then add the flour and mix until well blended.
Pack the dough in a cookie press. Fit the cookie press with your desired design plate. Press out the cookies on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat.
Bake until the cookies are firm to the touch, about 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.